


Gabriel Has Two Mommies II

by BlackQat



Series: Gabriel Has Two Mommies [1]
Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Gen, Restless kids; Tales told to children; Lil' Smarty-pants; jazz
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-09 13:29:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19476877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackQat/pseuds/BlackQat
Summary: She would swear Gabriel was twitting her by asking Lurlene for a story, but he’s too young … isn’t he?





	Gabriel Has Two Mommies II

**Author's Note:**

> Another couple of days in the life of lil' Gabriel. Mildred and Lurlene were created by LadyFangs and are used in this series by her permission. Thanks L.
> 
> These short-short stories are written in a very leisurely manner and published at an even more leisurely pace. Enjoy!

GABRIEL HAS TWO MOMMIES

Part 2

He’s six years old, and enjoys the occasional snuggling with one or the other of his moms. It’s Fall, and New Orleans is finally getting a little drier and cooler after a long, hot, humid summer. Summer doesn’t really stop until October or so. They’re out in the back yard right now, sitting on a big old quilt, the moms with be-fruited rum drinks, Gabriel with a fruit drink that looks exactly like theirs. They’re sipping, and enjoying some lemon poppyseed cake which, at the moment, is finger food. And they’re looking up; they have some high-powered binoculars and there’s a spacedock being built above Earth. The thing is huge; it’s supposed to accommodate some ten or twenty starships of various sizes when it’s completed. There’ll be drydock facilities for starships to undergo repairs and minor refits, and plenty of docking arms for starships dropping in to visit Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco, various interplanetary embassies all over Earth, or the United Federation of Planets’ beautiful campus near the middle of Paris, in the United States of Europe.

Gabriel’s birth mom Mildred has designed several levels of atria within the spacedock. She landscaped with structures for starfarers who might not have time to visit Earth, and would give those coming home an in-between point. A chance to feel a sense of physical space around them, smell some greenery and flowers, pad their way barefoot through some grass, enjoy some sculpture and water features, and just sit in an outdoor café or picnic quietly, surrounded by birds and their songs, and friendly domestic animals. On another level is a small oceanscape for wading and swimming; on another, a hotel level with a large swimming pool and a huge window overlooking Earth. A starship traveler or crewmember could find some respite here even if their ship was only docking for 24 hours. Many relatives, friends and romantic partners would meet them here, so Mildred did her best to design a welcoming place that could be romantic … or even help people withstand the heartbreak of a lovers’ breakup. 

The giant cylinder is now complete; the docking arms are being built. Defense systems are already installed in the cylinder and will be built into the docking arms too. “Doesn’t do much good to have all those starships in drydock, defenseless as kittens, and have some enemy ship come zoomin’ in to blow ‘em all up,” Mildred explained to Lurlene one night, kicked back on the screened porch. Gabriel, still a little one, was asleep [so they supposed], and they felt free to discuss threats to security and things like that. Only years later will they discover the boy spent a lot of late hours listening to them chat.

Lurlene gets expansive when she’s a tad bit tipsy, and tonight is no different. “Mildred, I am so proud of you,” she says, and Mildred says “Psshhht,” and waves a hand and drinks some of her drink. Lurlene squeezes Gabriel around his shoulders. “Spacedock’s coming around above us in about fifteen minutes, honey.”

“The Earth’s rotation will bring us under Spacedock in fifteen minutes, is what Mama Lurlene means, right, dearest?” Mildred is not always tart, but she is very fact-oriented, and wants Gabriel to grow up understanding the world as it is, not some soft gauzy sweet version presented in some children’s stories.

Gabriel snuggles closer to Lurlene. “Tell me about the stars, Lurlene.”

 _Oh here we go,_ thinks Mildred. She would swear Gabriel was twitting her by asking Lurlene for a story, but he’s too young … isn’t he?

“In olden times, the people used to say that Heaven was bright, and holes were poked into the sky so we could see little bits of it.”

Mildred rolls her eyes, but quietly sips her drink.

“Other people said that the constellations are gods that flew up into the sky when they died.”

“What do you think, Gabriel?” Mildred asks mildly.

“I think I still have a lot to learn in Science, but I like Momma Lurlene’s stories.”

_That boy could grow up to be a diplomat. But he’s way too antsy._

_._

“Gabriel _hold still_. You wiggle around. Can’t you settle down for five minutes?” Mildred whispers, on the edge of exasperated. They’re at a jazz concert she and Lurlene thought the eight-year-old boy might find interesting, but he’s not looking at the band, nor, apparently, listening.

Lurlene takes him by the hand and leads him out of the auditorium. They dance something like the Lindy Hop to the strains of the music coming through the doors. The song finishes and Gabriel still doesn’t want to go back in, so they go outside to walk for a few minutes and talk a little. He tells her about the football game he’s playing tomorrow, and she gets him to explain what the best strategies are going to be for getting the ball past the goalie into the net, in his opinion. Lurlene tries hard to track the footie talk, but she hasn’t much interest in talking about the game, she just likes to watch her favorite boy play, running down the field, skimming the ball with his feet. She does worry when he bounces it off his head.

“Gabriel, are you as interested in jazz as we are, me and Mildred?”

“It’s okay I guess. It’s more fun to dance to that kind than to listen, that’s all.”

“Well, that makes sense, it was dance music. How about the kind of jazz that I play, and the band we heard last week?”

“Oh, that’s fine,” he says, his eyes lighting up. It’s fun to listen to the improsiva—”

“Im-pro-vi-sa-tions” Lurlene automatically corrects.

“Impro …vi…sations, and the patterns they make and how the players change them.”

“That’s the biggest fun about jazz, I think.”

“When you play with your band – and y’all look at each other – that’s when you change things up sometimes, right?”

“Yeah it is, hon. I’m really glad you noticed that.”

“And it’s like y’all are having as much fun as the audience.”

“Probably more,” Lurlene smiles, “but it’s great to have that energy exchange with the listeners.”

“It’s kinda like when I’m playing footie and I hear people cheering.”

“It’s wonderful to watch you. You’re a good player, fast and graceful.”

“Thanks, Mama Lurlene.”

She gives his shoulders a squeeze. “All right, hon, you got those ants out of your pants now?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Mildred and I have longer attention spans than you do, don’t we.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“You will, when you’re grown. Well, let’s go back in, and you mind, if Mildred’s mouth starts going thin in a tight line, just squeeze my hand and we’ll slip out again, okay?”

“Okay.”

“And try to follow the solos when they happen, sometimes the players improvise a whole lot.”

Gabriel nods, and they step inside quietly. He sits mostly still for the rest, taking Lurlene’s advice.

Mildred sees him moving his feet softly, then nodding along during a trumpet solo, his fingers tapping on his thigh. She smiles over Gabriel’s head at her spouse. Lurlene is such a good mom to him. Mildred couldn’t possibly mother this child without her.


End file.
